James Burlington
James '''Douglas Burlington''', born in 20th of October in 3863 in Sandulka, Holy Luthori Empire and dead 1st October 3954, was a liberal politician for the Liberal Alliance and one of the most prominent politicians in Luthori during the 3900's. Background Born in a typical Adlerberg upper middle-class family, Burlington had the best opportunities to succeed in this world. His father a Professor in Medicine and his mother a Professor in Physics he was brought up by intellectuals to become an intellectual. Directly after Ground School he proceeded into the University, studying Medicine. Politics and work At his first job, at Adlerberg Hospital, he met his future wife Anna Hoffman, who worked as Pediatrician. They started to date and she took him to political gatherings in Adlerberg, where the Liberal Alliance had dominated the political climate for decades. He was inspired and started to campaign for a privatization of governmental owned Hospitals. Member of Parliament He made it in to the Imperial Diet at the 3896 election which meant he nearly missed his idol Annica Cannings time as partyleader. And during Ewald Gripenstedts rule he was getting more and more popular among the crowds. However, after the very bad election in 3905, where the party downcrashed, he and newly appointed partyleader Gina Dirwany agreed on taking the party further right. He was appointed Group Leader, which meant a position as a Party Whip. During his time as Parliamentary Group Leader he instituted an Assistant Party Whip. But in 3911 a snap election almost annihilated the Party only recieving 8 seats in the Diet. The Business and the Adlerberg nobility came down like a ton of bricks and insisted on some sort of change. Partyleader During these desperate times, Dirwany and Burlington agreed on a switch on positions. The partymembers and the Business wanted blood. Dirwany wanted to give them this by resigning, but she wanted to continue as MP and Group Leader. Everyone knew that the Partyleader must have a seat in the Diet, thus taking it down to only 8 persons. But Dirwany and Burlington were in luck. Out of 8 MP's only two could be counted as internal party oppositions; social liberals Josephine Ribbing and Veronica de Melenville. The rest of the MP's was seen as right wing liberals, and with the help of Assistant Party Whip Fleur van Ginzen, the coup could by made by electing the Partyleader among the MP's, where Ribbing layed down her vote. Now, Burlington knew he had to change the party. Second election After the Luthori General Election 3917 where the LA made small gains once again, the mixture of MP's made the middle faction smaller where the social liberals collected 6 MP's and the liberal conservatives 3. This meant that there were only 4 MP's for the leading faction in the Diet. The Group Leader Gina Dirwany was couped and the social liberals installed Vanja Glossop as new Group Leader. This meant that Burlington's chances to make a right-wing orientation were made a lot more harder. He needed the Parliamentary Group more than ever. Questioning and partial success After the 3923 election, Burlington was praised. He managed to restore a lot of party confidence when LA gained 20 seats and taking them to the best election results for nearly 20 years. However the National Union made huge win in mandates and it became a lot harder to keep them out of cabinet. The LA had two cabinet proposals to choose between. A centre coalition (including social democrats) and a right wing dito (including the National Union). The party left flank argued for the centre coalition but Burlington prefered the right wing one, even if the nationalists were included. At the end, the opinion against the right coalition became too strong, so Burlington agreed on a centre cabinet, even if it was a very broad alliance. The social liberal faction began in late 3925 to inspect the grounds concerning a party leader switch, which leaked out to newspapers. Burlington did never comment on this occasion. Total success and Head of Government The Luthori General Election 3926 became Burlington's total success and made him the most succesful partyleader of the Liberal Alliance since the days of Annica Canning however her Cabinet only lasted two years until the cabinet reshuffle in 3894. Burlington had to work hard in several years to become the second to largest party in the nation. But it was a hard time for him directly after the election due to the faction disagreements in the party. The party left pushed for a centre-coalition including the social democrats as well as other centrist partist. And Burlington and the party right negotiated with the National Union in order to create a majority cabinet with only two parties, which was rare. In the end, Burlington could enter into a right-coalition but he had to become HoG to appease the social liberals. They would'nt accepted that they sat in a National Union led Cabinet. In the late 3920's Burlington also signalled that he wanted to retire as soon as possible after the next election. Rumours began to rife about who would succeed him. The Partyleader coup During spring 3928, the social liberal dominated parliamentary group began to mobilize their troops for mutiny. The very right-oriented Burlington had angered the more social liberal faction of the party when he entered a cabinet coalition with the National Union two years before. And now the social liberals saw their chance. The great organizer and Parliamentary Group Leader Bertram Little had made a plan that would put away Burlington from partyleadership. And with experienced politicians as 80 yearedJosephine Ribbing and 74 yeared Victoria de Haviland acting from behind the scenes, Little was able to coup the partyleader. While the social liberals dominated both the Parliamentary Group as well as the national board it was'nt that hard to do it. The only resistance came from Minister of Trade and Industry Fleur van Ginzen and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Edward Astorius. But as ministers they did'nt have a place in the parliament and therefore circumscribing their organizational strength. On the National Board meeting of 28th of March 3928, James Burlington was confronted and put away with votes 9 against 4. Cabinet crisis After the Luthori General Election 3930 no new Cabinet could be formed and many parties, especially the smaller ones, yelled for a snap election. During this period Burlington continued leading the nation even if he was'nt even Partyleader any more. He was still of good health and did'nt want to let his country down. Two years after the election a new cabinet was formed and Burlington resigned, 69 years old. He settled down in Adlerberg when he retired. The 3930 Election was a succcess for the left wing where there had been some complaints in the national press about growing poverty in the suburbs and Burlington had to take the blame for that, removing some social security during his era as HoG. Even so, Burlington was seen as a successful partyleader in the party and was praised in 3933 when he stepped down as 2nd Vice Partyleader, he was replaced by the Minister of Defence, Adrian Motley.